On April 28, 2018, six members of our Okanagan Treasure Hunters Club went metal detecting at the former townsite of Fairview, British Columbia, Canada. Fairview, now a ghost town, was established in 1896 when gold mining activity in the area peaked but by 1920 the local gold rush had ended and the townsite was abandoned. Over the years the buildings were either relocated to Oliver, British Columbia or demolished leaving a wide open field full of sage brush, cacti, rusted metal trash (see our collection below!) and, in summer, rattlesnakes. One area we were all quite interested in detecting was where The Fairview Hotel (nicknamed the Big Teepee at the time) had been located. It had been built in 1897 but tragically was destroyed by a fire in 1902. Over the years others had sifted the soil at that location and found abundant coins, jewelry and other interesting artifacts, but we knew that our detectors could probably find numerous deeper targets that soil sifting would have missed. Within the first 40 minutes one of our members yelled out excitedly that he had found an 1870 Canadian dime, with Queen Victoria on the back, and it was only 2 to 3 inches deep. This is the oldest Canadian coin anyone in our club has found and would have been one of the first coins minted after Canada became a country in 1867. We were all so excited and happy for our friend, and we were all now determined more than ever to find ‘treasure’! My husband and I had only owned our Equinox 800 detectors for five weeks but thought it’s best to dig every good signal as practise is the only way to get to know your machine. Since Fairview is quite trashy with lots of rusty metal, we set our modes to Park 2, sensitivity to 16, recovery speed to 6, and multi frequency. After digging a few rusty tin cans, square nails, a horseshoe and an old file I heard high tone while swinging my Equinox. I looked down to see 34, 29, 32, and 28 on the screen as I was swinging the coil. They were the highest VDI’s I’d had all day! I hit the pinpointing button, located the target and started to dig a plug with my 8 inch shovel, but noticed that someone else had already dug a 4 inch plug but had not continued digging. I removed my plug and used my pin pointer to locate the target, which was a further 2 inches down. Upon digging out the large metal object I thought it might be a door knob, as another club member had recovered a door knob on a hunt at Fairview two weeks previous, and since we were near the old hotel site this was a likely find. As I gently cleaned it off with my little water bottle and toothbrush I revealed what looked like teeth, then hollow eye sockets!! “What the heck is this?”, I thought!! It turned out to be the lower part of a hollow painted lead skull! Now that was a bit creepy, but remembering the motto “always check the hole before filling” I put my pin pointer back in the hole and it beeped again. I dug a bit more and found what appeared to be a rounded stone, but a gentle tap with my screwdriver gave a hollow sound so I gently dug it out and there was the top of the little painted lead skull!! I could see a small bent hinge and realized this was some sort of a skull-shaped container. I was about to fill the hole but remembered again to check once more so I put my pin pointer in one last time just in case, and BEEP, there was still something down there! I dug a bit more and found what initially appeared to be a small piece of wire. When I cleaned it off it looked similar to a Q-Tip, with a rusty thick wire but the end pieces looked like small bones! I checked the hole one more time with my pin pointer and there was nothing else so I filled the hole back in and rushed over to show my husband my interesting find. When we got home we started researching ‘skull-shaped containers’ and ‘late 1800’s small containers’ and after a number of internet searches realized that my find was probably a snuff box and dipping stick from the mid to late 1800’s! Wow, I was so excited and truly impressed with what my Equinox 800 had found. At our next club meeting on May 15, 2018 I won the Miscellaneous Find of the Month! Here are photos of my Skull Snuff Box and Dipping Stick! My first fantastic find with my new Equinox 800!!
Maggie St-Hilaire - British Columbia, Canada
